Countering Common Sense

American Thinker ^ | 20 Feb, 2023 | Thomas Klocek

[MtnClimber]

One of my high school teachers was fond of telling us that common sense was not very common. If it ever was common, it seems to be mostly gone now. Today’s self-anointed pharisees, rather than employ common sense to foster the needs of the people, do everything they can to counter it, mostly for their own needs and agenda, regardless of the negative impacts it may have on society as a whole.

Of course, common sense is tied to logic and, despite Kamala’s obsession with Venn diagrams, many people today are like the person described in C.S. Lewis’s classic, The Screwtape Letters: “Your man is accustomed to having a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head.” The way the self-anointed get around common sense is to convince themselves that their ideology is better and more important than reality. Again, as Screwtape notes, “Everything has to be twisted before it’s any use to us.” Now their problem is merely to convince the rest of us, and they do this by obfuscation, misreporting, actually failing to report key information, or outright lying.

And so, we get the twisted excuse from Bill Gates (and other elites) that, because he is such an advocate for green policies, all his private airplane flights are okay. If such lame excuses don’t work, they’ll find some way to blame someone or something else for the failure of their ideology to produce the promised benefits.

We see this kind of argument when it comes to the elite’s mantra of “tax the rich” and make them pay “their fair share.” They claimed Trump’s tax cuts only benefited the rich and would reduce federal receipts. In actuality, receipts from taxes went up as a result of Trump’s tax policy.

[MtnClimber]

And then the left uses force to make others live in their false reality.

[ComputerGuy]

Your man is accustomed to having a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head.

I had forgotten that line. So appropriate.

[RoosterRedux]

The way the self-anointed get around common sense is to convince themselves that their ideology is better and more important than reality.

Oddly, that also applies to ethics just as it does to common sense.

It is astonishing how many people are unethical because they believe their kind of Christian faith (for example) permits them to take an ethically circuitous route.

Like people who don't report cash income on their taxes, some who plagiarize the work of others, and still others who tell whoppers and are amazingly intellectually dishonest...all in the name of Christianity you understand.

[OHPatriot]

The author says common sense is rare. I would add that critical thinking is also as rare these days. It’s just so very sad that so many people are blind enough to believe everything they read in the media and lack the ability to question the obvious lies and deception. Collective IQ has taken a serious hit.

[cuz1961]

Your man is accustomed to having a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head.

/\

They are

walking oxymorons.

[HeadOn]

“...their kind of Christian faith...”

Preach on. There’s only one real Christian faith, and you and I both know we are not talking about denominations. If someone’s “faith” allows them to keep sinning without remorse, it’s pretty obvious they don’t have it.

We all sin. The question is, will we admit it? Real Christians will. And then rely on God for how to deal with it.